Fujian cuisine

Fujian cuisine
A bowl of Fujian thick soup, or geng (羹). Fujian-style cuisine contains soups, soupy dishes, and stews.
Chinese	福建菜
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Fújiàn cài Southern Min Hokkien POJ Hok-kiàn chhài
Min cuisine
Traditional Chinese	閩菜
Simplified Chinese	闽菜
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Mǐn cài Southern Min Hokkien POJ Bân-chhài

Fujian cuisine is one of the native Chinese cuisines derived from the native cooking style of Fujian province in China,most notably from the Fuzhou region. Fujian-style cuisine is known to be light but flavourful, soft, and tender, with particular emphasis on umami taste, known in Chinese cooking as "xianwei" (simplified Chinese: 鲜味; traditional Chinese: 鮮味; pinyin: xiānwèi), as well as retaining the original flavour of the main ingredients instead of masking them.

Many diverse seafoods and woodland delicacies are used, including a myriad variety of local fish, shellfish and turtles, or indigenous edible mushrooms and bamboo shoots, provided by the coastal and mountainous regions of Fujian. The most commonly employed cooking techniques in the region's cuisine include braising, stewing, steaming and boiling.

Particular attention is paid on the finesse of knife skills and cooking technique of the chefs, which is used to enhance the flavour, aroma and texture of seafood and other foods. Strong emphasis is put on the making and utilising of broth and soups. There are sayings in the region's cuisine: "One broth can be changed into numerous (ten) forms" (simplified Chinese: 一汤十变; traditional Chinese: －湯十變; pinyin: yī tāng shí biàn) and "It is unacceptable for a meal to not have soup" (simplified Chinese: 不汤不行; traditional Chinese: 不湯不行; pinyin: bù tāng bù xíng).

Fermented fish sauce, known locally as "shrimp oil" (simplified Chinese: 虾油; traditional Chinese: 蝦油; pinyin: xiā yóu), is also commonly used in the cuisine, along with oysters, crab, and prawns. Peanuts (utilised for both savoury dishes and desserts) are also prevalent, and can be boiled, fried, roasted, crushed, ground or even turned into a paste. Peanuts can be used as a garnish, feature in soups and even be added to braised or stir-fried dishes.

Styles

Fujian cuisine consists of four styles:

• Fuzhou: the taste is lighter compared to other styles, often with a mixed sweet and sour taste. Fuzhou is famous for its soups, and its use of fermented fish sauce and Red yeast rice.
• Southern Fujian: the taste is slightly stronger than Fuzhou cuisine, showing influence from Southeast Asian cuisine and Japanese cuisine. Use of sugar and spices (like shacha sauce and five-spice powder) is more common. Various kinds of slow-cooked soup (not quite similar to the Cantonese tradition) are found. Many dishes come with dipping sauces. Main ingredients include rice, pork (pork offal are considered delicacy), beef, chicken, duck, seafood and various vegetables.
• Western Fujian: there are often slight spicy tastes from mustard and pepper and the cooking methods are often steaming, frying and stir-frying. Food is saltier and oilier compared to other parts of Fujian, usually focusing on meat rather than seafood.

Seasonings

Unique seasoning from Fujian include fish sauce, shrimp paste, sugar, Shacha sauce, and preserved apricot. As well, wine lees from the production of rice wine is commonly used in all aspects of the region's cuisine. Red yeast rice (simplified Chinese: 红麴 / 红糟酱; traditional Chinese: 紅麴 / 紅糟醬; pinyin: hóngqū / hóngzāojiàng) is also commonly used in Fujian cuisine, imparting a rosy-red hue to the foods, pleasant aroma, and slightly sweet taste

Fujian is also well known for its "drunken" (wine marinated) dishes and is famous for the quality of the soup stocks and bases used to flavour their dishes, soups, and stews.

Notable dishes

One of the most famous dishes in Fujian cuisine is "Buddha Jumps Over the Wall", a complex dish making use of many ingredients, including shark's fin, sea cucumber, abalone, and Shaoxing wine.

Fujian is also notable for yanpi (Chinese: 燕皮; pinyin: yànpí), literally "swallow skin," a thin wrapper made with large proportions of lean minced pork. This wrapper has a unique texture due to the incorporation of meat and has a "bite" similar to things made with surimi. Yanpi is used to make rouyan (Chinese: 肉燕; pinyin: ròuyàn), a type of wonton.

Notable dishes in Fujian cuisine

English	Traditional Chinese	Simplified Chinese	Pinyin	Pe̍h-ōe-jī	Description
Buddha Jumps Over the Wall	佛跳牆	佛跳墙	fótiàoqiáng	hu̍t-thiàu-chhiûⁿ	Contains over 30 ingredients, including shark's fin, abalone, sea slug, dried scallops, duck, chicken breast, pig's trotters, mushrooms, pigeon eggs and other ingredients. A legend is that after the dish is cooked, the aroma lingers, and upon detecting the smell, a Buddhist monk forgot his vow to be a vegetarian and leapt over a wall to taste the dish.
Oyster omelette	蚵仔煎	蚵仔煎	hézǎijiān	ô-á-chian	Omelette with oyster filling
Popiah / Lunpiah	薄餅 / 潤餅	薄饼 / 润饼	báobǐng / rùnbǐng	pȯh-piáⁿ	Crepe with bean sauce or soy sauce filling
Ban mian	板面	板面	bǎnmiàn		Flat-shaped egg noodle soup
Bak kut teh	肉骨茶	肉骨茶	ròugŭchá	bah-kut-tê	Literally means "meat bone tea". A soup of pork ribs simmered in a broth of herbs and spices including star anise, cinnamon, cloves and garlic. It is usually eaten with rice or noodles.
Stuffed fish balls	包心魚丸	包心鱼丸	bāoxīn yúwán		Fish balls filled with meat
Ngo hiang	五香	五香	wǔxiāng	ngó͘-hiong	Fried roll in five-spice powder filled with minced pork and vegetables. Also known as quekiam or kikiam (a localized pronunciation in the Philippines) and lor bak in some Southeast Asian countries such as Malaysia and Singapore.
Fujian red wine chicken	紅糟雞	红糟鸡	hóngzāojī		Chicken cooked in red yeast rice
Minshengguo	閩生果	闽生果	mǐnshēngguǒ		Stir fried raw peanuts
Fragrant snails in wine	淡糟香螺片	淡糟香螺片	dànzāo xiāng luópiàn		Snails cooked with wine lees
Meat strips with green pepper	青椒肉絲	青椒肉丝	qīngjiāo ròusī		Pork strips with green pepper. It has been adapted to become "pepper steak" in Chinese restaurants in the West.
Clams in chicken soup	雞湯汆海蚌	鸡汤汆海蚌	jītāng cuān hǎibàng		Clams cooked in chicken stock
Crispy skin fish rolls	脆皮魚卷	脆皮鱼卷	cuìpí yújuǎn		Fried bean curd skin with fish fillings
Dried scallop with daikon	干貝蘿蔔	干贝萝卜	gānbèi luóbò		Daikon steamed with conpoy (dried scallop) and Chinese ham
Drunken ribs	醉排骨	醉排骨	zuì páigǔ		Pork ribs marinated in wine
Eastern Wall Dragon Pearls	東壁龍珠	东壁龙珠	dōngbì lóngzhū		Longan fruit with meat fillings
Braised frog	黄燜田雞	黄焖田鸡	huángmèn tiánjī		Frog braised in wine
Five Colours Shrimp	五彩蝦松	五彩虾松	wǔcǎi xiāsōng		Stir fried diced shrimp and vegetables
Five Colours Pearls	五彩珍珠扣	五彩珍珠扣	wǔcǎi zhēnzhūkòu		Squid braised with vegetables
Yanpi	燕皮	燕皮	yànpí		A thin wrapper made with large proportions of lean pork
Misua	麵線	面线	miànxiàn	mī-sòaⁿ	A thin variety of Chinese noodles made from wheat flour

A plate of worm jelly.

There are many eating places around the province that sell these specialities for two yuan, and which are thus known as "two-yuan eateries". In Xiamen, a local speciality is worm jelly (simplified Chinese: 土笋冻; traditional Chinese: 土笋凍; pinyin: tǔsǔndòng), an aspic made from a species of marine peanut worm.

See also

• Shaxian delicacies
• List of Chinese dishes
• Chinatown, Flushing
• Brooklyn's Fuzhou Town (福州埠)
• Manhattan's Little Fuzhou (小福州)